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This omnibus edition contains Survival (book 1) and Humanity (book 2) of the After It Happened series.
Pre-med student Coral is on vacation in Idaho when something terrible happens. The black cloud is followed by a wildfire and searing heat that lasts for days. She survives deep in a cave but emerges days later to find the world transformed, with blackened trees, an ash-filled sky, and no living creatures stirring - except for her. So begins her desperate journey to find water and food and other survivors...and the answer to the mystery of what happened.
In Atlanta, Dr. Peyton Shaw is awakened by the phone call she has dreaded for years. As the CDC's leading epidemiologist, she's among the first responders to outbreaks around the world. It's a lonely and dangerous job, but it's her life - and she's good at it. This time she may have met her match. In Kenya, an Ebola-like pathogen has infected two Americans. One lies at death's door. With the clock ticking, Peyton assembles her team and joins personnel from the Kenyan Ministry of Health and the WHO.
Set over four days against the backdrop of the Munich Conference of September 1938, Munich follows the fortunes of two men who were friends at Oxford together in the 1920s. Hugh Legat is a rising star of the British diplomatic service, serving in 10 Downing Street as a private secretary to the Prime Minister, Neville Chamberlain. Paul von Hartmann is on the staff of the German Foreign Office - and secretly a member of the anti-Hitler resistance. They have not been in contact for more than a decade.
The Normandy landings that took place on D-day involved by far the largest invasion fleet ever known. The scale of the undertaking was simply awesome. What followed them was some of the most cunning and ferocious fighting of the war, at times as savage as anything seen on the Eastern Front. As casualties mounted, so, too, did the tensions between the principal commanders on both sides. Meanwhile, French civilians caught in the middle of these battlefields or under Allied bombing endured terrible suffering.
Imagine you could travel back to the 14th century. What would you see? What would you smell? More to the point, where are you going to stay? And what are you going to eat? Ian Mortimer shows us that the past is not just something to be studied; it is also something to be lived. He sets out to explain what life was like in the most immediate way, through taking you to the Middle Ages. The result is the most astonishing social history book you are ever likely to read: evolutionary in its concept, informative and entertaining in its detail.
This omnibus edition contains Survival (book 1) and Humanity (book 2) of the After It Happened series.
Pre-med student Coral is on vacation in Idaho when something terrible happens. The black cloud is followed by a wildfire and searing heat that lasts for days. She survives deep in a cave but emerges days later to find the world transformed, with blackened trees, an ash-filled sky, and no living creatures stirring - except for her. So begins her desperate journey to find water and food and other survivors...and the answer to the mystery of what happened.
In Atlanta, Dr. Peyton Shaw is awakened by the phone call she has dreaded for years. As the CDC's leading epidemiologist, she's among the first responders to outbreaks around the world. It's a lonely and dangerous job, but it's her life - and she's good at it. This time she may have met her match. In Kenya, an Ebola-like pathogen has infected two Americans. One lies at death's door. With the clock ticking, Peyton assembles her team and joins personnel from the Kenyan Ministry of Health and the WHO.
Set over four days against the backdrop of the Munich Conference of September 1938, Munich follows the fortunes of two men who were friends at Oxford together in the 1920s. Hugh Legat is a rising star of the British diplomatic service, serving in 10 Downing Street as a private secretary to the Prime Minister, Neville Chamberlain. Paul von Hartmann is on the staff of the German Foreign Office - and secretly a member of the anti-Hitler resistance. They have not been in contact for more than a decade.
The Normandy landings that took place on D-day involved by far the largest invasion fleet ever known. The scale of the undertaking was simply awesome. What followed them was some of the most cunning and ferocious fighting of the war, at times as savage as anything seen on the Eastern Front. As casualties mounted, so, too, did the tensions between the principal commanders on both sides. Meanwhile, French civilians caught in the middle of these battlefields or under Allied bombing endured terrible suffering.
Imagine you could travel back to the 14th century. What would you see? What would you smell? More to the point, where are you going to stay? And what are you going to eat? Ian Mortimer shows us that the past is not just something to be studied; it is also something to be lived. He sets out to explain what life was like in the most immediate way, through taking you to the Middle Ages. The result is the most astonishing social history book you are ever likely to read: evolutionary in its concept, informative and entertaining in its detail.
The Pillars of the Earth tells the story of Philip, prior of Kingsbridge, a devout and resourceful monk driven to build the greatest Gothic cathedral the world has known... of Tom, the mason who becomes his architect - a man divided in his soul... of the beautiful, elusive Lady Aliena, haunted by a secret shame... and of a struggle between good and evil that will turn church against state, and brother against brother.
Day one: The Georgia Flu explodes over the surface of the Earth like a neutron bomb. News reports put the mortality rate at over 99%. Week Two: Civilization has crumbled. Year Twenty: A band of actors and musicians called the Travelling Symphony move through their territories performing concerts and Shakespeare to the settlements that have grown up there. Twenty years after the pandemic, life feels relatively safe. But now a new danger looms, and it threatens the hopeful world every survivor has tried to rebuild.
This novel, set in London in the late 1950s, finds George Smiley engaged in the humdrum job of security vetting. But when a Foreign Office civil servant commits suicide after an apparently unproblematic interview, Smiley is baffled. Refusing to believe that Fennan shot himself soon after making a cup of cocoa and asking the exchange to telephone him in the morning, Smiley decides to investigate – only to uncover a murderous conspiracy.
Five years after a "limited" nuclear war, two survivors journey across America. They - and you - will discover what is left of our way of life, the depth of the devastation, and the hopes of a new society desperately struggling to be born.
Fatherland is set in an alternative world where Hitler has won the Second World War. It is April 1964 and one week before Hitler's 75th birthday. Xavier March, a detective of the Kriminalpolizei, is called out to investigate the discovery of a dead body in a lake near Berlin's most prestigious suburb. As March discovers the identity of the body, he uncovers signs of a conspiracy that could go to the very top of the German Reich.
In 2061 a young scientist invents a time machine to fix a tragedy in his past. But his good intentions turn catastrophic when an early test reveals something unexpected: the end of the world. A desperate plan is formed: recruit three heroes, ordinary humans capable of extraordinary things, and change the future.
It's the year 2044, and the real world has become an ugly place.
Audible Originals takes to the high seas to bring to life this timeless tale of pirates, lost treasure maps and mutiny. When weathered old sailor Billy Bones arrives at the inn of young Jim Hawkins' parents, it is the start of an adventure beyond anything he could have imagined. When Bones dies mysteriously, Jim stumbles across a map of a mysterious island in his sea chest, where X marks the spot of a stash of buried pirate gold.
In Betrayed, award-winning author Brendan DuBois writes a harrowing tale of "what if" that begins with a knock on the door. Late at night, small-town newspaper editor Jason Harper answers the door, revealing a dirty, bearded and disheveled stranger. This stranger has an amazing tale: its his brother, Roy Harper, a B-52 pilot shot down in North Vietnam in 1972, and who has recently escaped, with armed gunmen on his trail...
In Portsmouth, N.H., Sam Miller is a cop supporting a family and trying to stay on the right side of his boss, the law, and his conscience. Then a murder victim is found by the railroad tracks, a number tattooed on the victim's wrist, something never seen before by the police. It's a case Sam could walk away from. It's a case he will be ordered to drop. And it is case that leads him into a lethal vortex of politics, espionage, rebellion, and international intrigue.
The impossible has spawned the unthinkable. In 2021, a quantum military experiment goes horrifically wrong. A multinational taskforce of ultramodern warships is suddenly transported back in time to 1942...right into the path of the US naval battle group bound for Midway Atoll. History is rewritten in an instant as the future smashes into the past, and high-tech hardware goes head to head with World War Two technology. In the chaos that ensues, thousands are killed, but the maelstrom has only just begun.
The unimaginable has happened: the world has been plunged into all-out nuclear war. Sailing near the Arctic Circle, the USS Nathan James is relatively unscathed, but the future is grim and Captain Thomas is facing mutiny from the tattered remnants of his crew. With civilization in ruins, he urges those that remain - 152 men and 26 women - to pull together in search of land. Once they reach safety, however, the men and women on board realize that they are the earth's last remaining survivors.
"Everyone remembers exactly what they were doing the day President Kennedy tried to kill them."
In 1962 the Cuban Missile Crisis brought the United States and the Soviet Union to the brink of the nuclear war. The crisis was averted, but what would have happened if war had broken out? In Resurrection Day, award-winning author Brendan DuBois brings this horrific concept to life.
Story is quite an entertaining alternative history ride.. But good god, the narrator *murders* English accents. Why? I'd far rather hear a story in an American accent all the way through than the weird mixture of Indian/Scottish/whoknows that the narrator comes up with when reading English parts.
1 of 1 people found this review helpful
The concept of this book interested me, I still think that a decent book could be written with a similar story line but nothing about this ever reaches a decent level. The story is full of cliches, repetition, and many an unbelievable moments. Everything has to be spelled out for the listener as if they couldn't grasp the simplest idea.
The lead character is clearly a moron, reaching conclusions half an hour after the listener has, yet he manages to outwit everyone else in the book. Time and again 'twists' are telegraphed ages before they are revealed so that there is a complete lack of suspense. The lead (Carl) has a habit of (attempting) to deliver pithy one-liners whenever he gains the upper hand but these are the dreadful. In general much of the dialogue in unbelievable.
The support and romantic interest (Sandy) is not only a journalist, but also a spy. Yet she is too stupid to be believable in either role. Also, even though this book is set in the 70s the way she is written as a pathetic character relying on Carl makes you think that the author was stuck in decades before. Yet the book was written decades later. Her dialogue (and that of every British character) is made up of dated and lazy cliches (tea and biscuits constantly, you can guess what will be said next 'by Jove'). The author tries to shoehorn everything that he knows about British people in these characters, but the details are about as in depth as a Tourist Board advert. Harrods, the Savoy, Scotch and tea. Pathetic. Little research or character development at all.
The narration is equally trite. If you can't do accents, don't attempt them. Reading them all in your native accent is perfect acceptable. No idea where the British accents are meant to be from. The intonation in the American accents is awful. Spoils any tonne that might have been generated. The narrator attempts a Russian accent (poorly) for all of two lines before giving up and reverting to his own.
Great concept, awful, awful book. Bad adaption. Really not worth publishing.
Story was a slog to get through. I found I was mostly listening out for how awful the accent ts were.
I was always intrigued to listen to this book , I like a good Historical what if story, and the Cuban missile crisis was a big one ! I really think this book could have been edited a lot more, I would have made easier reading , overall not a bad story , but the narration was terrible , very lack lustre , and his English accents were atrocious ! I think a good narrator can even make an average book good , and a bad narrator can make a good book real hard to listen to !
1 of 1 people found this review helpful
"Resurection Day" is a great, contrafactual 'what if' story, no doubt about it. Its description of the consequences of a "limited" nuclear war is chilling and bleak, especially with what is going on in North Korea these days. The reader, Rich McVicar, is competent except for one thing: His attempt at an English accent. It is atrocious, horrible and just plain wrong. Thus, he makes one of the characters, (Sandy, an upper-class Englishwoman from London), pronounce "Manhattan" as "ManHARtan" and her own name as "SARN-dy, which nobody does or has ever done. His accent comes across as a weird mixture of Jamaican and Hollywood "posh" by way of Keanu Reeves in "Dracula." It is truly, frighteningly, horribly bad, and it seriously detracts from your enjoyment of the novel. Which is really a pitty, seeing how great the story is. :(
Would you consider the audio edition of Resurrection Day to be better than the print version?
Don't know, as didn't read the print version
What was the most interesting aspect of this story? The least interesting?
Writer had some interesting ideas that were key to me continuing to listen. Some details were a bit much and oddly at times a bit too little, and the constant love affair with JFK got over way over the top at times. So much so I almost stopped the book more than once.
What aspect of Rich McVicar’s performance would you have changed?
He has a poor English accent, a main character that is from NYC I think he tried to give a NYC accent to but didn't manage it. Amusingly, when trying to perform the NYC accent his Bostonian one came through stronger than when voicing a character from Boston.
Was there a moment in the book that particularly moved you?
Not truly no, at least not without giving away a plot point near the end I shall not detail.
Any additional comments?
It is an interesting alternative history. However it is obviously written from a perspective and viewpoint of a JFK fan. Not that that is a problem per-se, just by 3/4 of the way through it I found myself saying "enough already" we get you loved the guy. Some leaps in logic to be truthful, and as a 'fantasy' goes, and don't mistake it, this is at its heart a fantasy tragic albeit, the book is slightly above average and fairly long.Perhaps not living in the days this book is founded on has me at a loss, but I just don't understand the love affair with JFK and all his "plans". That's not the authors fault, and I can't blame him if he did and therefore does, but to me it was a bit much when it comes to the virtual worship of the former President. Way too complimentary and not fairly balanced with things not complementary to JFK that we know are factual.Overall, not horrible, but not great either. Solidly average even if the author obviously comes from a political perspective I do not share.
Actually 4.5 / 5 for story and 3.5 / 5 for narration but rounded up
Set in an alternative 1972, the USA is heading towards the 10 year anniversary of a nuclear war started when JFK failed to stop the Cuban Missle Crisis and Cuba fired upon the US. The story follows a retired solider turned investagative journalist Carl Landry as he investigates the murder of another war veteran. The murdered war vertan had previously contacted Landry promising the sotry of the centruy, and Landry starts to suspect that he may have been murdered because of that story. Landry must deal with government censorship, personal and societal shame about the events of the war, international politics and urban legends to get to the bottom of the murder.
This book is alternative history at it's finest, showing what could have been if the Cuban Missle Crisis hadn't ended in a stand-off. DuBois slowly releases details organiscally into the story explaining the events and how it came about and how the US has changed since. And everything about it just comes across as plausible - Collapse of NATO, European nations providing food and support etc (in a reverse Marshall plan sort of way), government or military men placed as editors at all newspapers to ensure that no unapproved story is printed, the shame of the people at what was done in retaliation, the oppressive atmosphere that means none of this is talked about openly... It just created a create mood for the book.
The story itself is full of twists and turns, with you never really sure until the end who is good and who is bad, and what each persons agenda is, and what the 'great story' the murdered vet actually had.
Absolutely loved it and I htink anyone who likes alternative history should check it out.
McVicar's narration is good. It took me a little while to get used to his accent (it is american, but I'm not sure which part it is from) but once I was used to it I was then able to really enjoy the book. He provides voices and accents for characters (although his initial british accent right at the start of the book was a little difficult to listen to) and provides the right inflection for what the characters said and did. Overall rather enjoyable.
This audiobook was provided by the narrator at no cost in exchange for an unbiased review courtesy of audiobookblast dot com.
I've read quite a few alternate history novels, such as Len Deighton's SS-GB, Philip K Dick's Man in the High Castle, James Herbert's 48, and I got to say, Resurrection Day stacks up very well against them all.
Resurrection Day is set in a world 10 years after the Cuban Missile Crisis, in a world where the crisis wasn't averted. America is a very different and darker place, under more or less a military dictatorship, with several cities lost to nuclear warfare, but the Soviet Union and China more or less non existent.
The story revolves around a journalist, who starts with trying to follow the story of the death of a man he had met, and the chain of far reaching events that unfolds as he continues to pursue the story.
The story was a journey that I didn't want to end. Although I got this as a review copy, I'd have gladly bought it, and will definitely by buying other books from this author and narrator.
Rich McVicar did a wonderful job narrating, and was very easy to listen to him tell the story. I hope he gets more narrating gigs on great novels like this. Looking at his Audible titles, this seems like the first "full length" novel he has done. I sincerely hope he gets more.
Highly recommended.
"I was provided this audiobook at no charge by the author, publisher and/or narrator in exchange for an unbiased review via AudiobookBlast dot com"
I had to stop listening, it is just not good !!!
0 of 2 people found this review helpful